Alan Parsons never hid his tendecy for "mainstream" audiences since record one. What made these first APP's efforts (1,2 & 3) worthwhile was the balance towards less pop/rock "?" and more towards "prog/serious stuff" "?', which was brought upon by the Project's co-founder, collaborator and composer Eric Woolfson. In fact if not for him, I doubt "the project" will have been included in the PA pages of those days. Anyway, this A.P.P. project lies mostly, as far as song writing goes, in the hands of Mr. Woolfson's composition skills. In fact, if not for the instrumental electronic songs, this effort resembles quiet far more Mr. Woolfson's "solo" albums than the "common" APP's albums. This of course, is neither good or bad, the Project itself has always been quiet mutable, depending who was the one who took charge of it at the time of recording. So, as mentioned, Mr. Parsons has had this kind of "knack" for catchy songs and vocals since day one, this effort is completely INSTRUMENTAL and there are no "mainstream radio" focused songs, nor "hits"! Every song is free of this. In fact, quiet the opposite from the Project's or Alan Parsons Band's usual intentions, in comparisson, this 2014 "The Sicilian Defence" album, could even be considered "experimental", which frankly is an uncommon relief, after all those years. Like chess, they take turns between mostly acoustic piano based songs and Mr, Parsons' unmistakable "prog/electronic" instrumental work and in the meantime throw some "petite" flashbacks of the long gone past glory days, which of course is super nice, as they are diminutive. The "match" is enjoyable, the song writing as a whole is well balanced between "each" world. And without doubt, it will all come up to, how well? or much?, you like Mr Woolfson's style and own musical language. (The usual APP's instrumental electronic songs are as almost always, from average to very good, there is one that even feels "Schulzesque",which is quiet fun!)